Stricter Gun Laws Didn’t Stop This Mass Shooting in Canada

On Monday night, a 29-year-old man opened fired with a handgun on bystanders at a busy intersection in Toronto, Canada, killing two and wounding 13 before being shot to death by law enforcement officers.

Although the man’s motives remain unclear, reports have circulated that he frequented Islamic State-inspired websites and may have lived for a time in either Afghanistan or Pakistan, fueling speculation that this was a terrorist attack.

The man’s relatives have since issued a statement offering their condolences to the victims and noting that the man had long suffered from “severe mental health challenges.” According to the family, these challenges included both psychosis and depression.

If true, the shooter follows a long-established pattern in which 60 percent of mass public shooters have been diagnosed with a mental disorder or demonstrated clear signs of serious mental illness prior to the attack.

In the hours following the deadly incident, Canadian politicians have joined in a debate on the status of the country’s gun control laws, with Toronto Mayor John Tory going so far as to question why anybody would need a gun in that city. At least one other lawmaker has suggested that the possession of firearms be completely banned in large urban areas.

While this anti-gun rhetoric will sound familiar to Americans, Canadians have become particularly acquainted with it over the last four decades as the government has imposed increasingly stricter gun control measures.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Canadian Constitution doesn’t recognize or protect an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, and Canadians have long been subject to a comparatively strict gun control framework.